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How to manage Generation Y

Cindy Krischer Goodman
September 2, 2010
Man using smart phone.

Working on the go ... Being connected at all times is second nature to Gen Ys. Photo: Rob Homer

The concept of working from anywhere at any time is second nature to Generation Y, something they never even question. It's an option previous generations never had, when laptops, WiFi and compassionate bosses were scarce.

Now, the 30- and 40-year-olds who make up Generation X are managing the twenty-somethings as their supervisors and mentors and trying to figure out why they have such a different attitude about work and what to do about it.

Most of us haven't really thought about the important role we play in moulding this new generation of workers.

From their first entry into the workplace a few years ago, Gen Ys, smart and brash, have bumped up against corporate cultures steeped in the chained-to-your-desk mentality.

Advocacy groups are putting up a good fight to coax workplaces to be more accommodating about where and when work gets done.

But Gen Y consistently says their biggest obstacle is managers who can't let go of the need to exercise authority over employees - in person.

Jaret Davis, a 35-year-old partner at a law firm, considers himself "a bridge between two extremes". He's smack in the middle of the younger lawyers who want flexibility and work-life balance, and the older lawyers in top management who want to preserve a corporate culture where tradition and face time is valued.

"The Gen Y perspective is not foreign to my generation," Davis said. "We came with the mindset to work hard, do what it takes, but we're open to Gen Y who looks at it as, 'How can I work hard and master my craft while not sacrificing my life?'"

Davis says he's working with young lawyers at his firm to figure out how to tap into innovations that would give flexibility and still get the work done.

Many Gen Xers with kids are using informal flexibility at work, rather than formal flexibility. They say their immediate managers (fellow Gen Xers), as opposed to top executives (boomers and matures), are from dual-career households, too, and are supportive of the work-life challenges they face.

Like Davis, Karen Gilmartin, a workers compensation lawyer, understands her role in modernising the workplace.

The young lawyers need Gen Xers to teach them that they can have success but they have to earn it, she said. Gilmartin, 49, leads by example, showing her young female associates that it's possible to be a respected law partner and a mother.

"I'm here at 7am but I might cut out early to get my child to football training."

Gen X were the pioneers who suffered the perils of flex time and allowed personal schedules to take them off their career paths.

But maybe as pioneers we can help the next generation build on our experience and figure out how to do it even better, how to use a flexible work arrangement without it taking someone off the path to the top.

Now there's an even different bunch, already being referred to as the iGeneration.

This generation would rather text than talk. They want to be constantly connected, available and multi-tasking and don't remember a time without the constant connectivity to the world via sophisticated handheld devices. In a decade, when they enter the workplace, they won't be able to fathom why they can't split early when clearly they can handle any client need from their smart phones.

MCT

8 comments

  • Another generation, another arbitrary set of attributable personality traits. How quickly people forget the days when they were the object of such ludicrous cultural generalizations.

    Commenter
    klokwerx
    Location
    sydneyuni
    Date and time
    September 02, 2010, 2:03PM

  • >The concept of working from anywhere at any time is second nature to Generation Y, something they never even question.
    Possibly it is because the stick of 30 years of unemployment and underemployment is hanging over their heads? Are you seriously asserting that people never question the idea of constantly and without notice being required to work?

    >Advocacy groups
    We used to call these things "trade unions". Some of them could have won massive loadings for the 24 hours oncall swing shifts you describe above.

    >[example of lawyers snipped]
    Because a generation is reducible to a single university trained profession with well known atypical employment and remuneration features.

    Perhaps you could have paraphrased, "Some lawyers I know would like to see their children, and they're younger."

    Most Generations Ys get managed as Generation X and previous generations were managed: through brutalising line management in deskilled and unskilled occupations.

    Commenter
    In the land of the blind the woman who knows braille is queen
    Location
    Sydney
    Date and time
    September 02, 2010, 2:10PM

  • As a baby boomer and having managed across the generational spectrum, I don't give a rat's where they do the work as long as it gets done and the clients are happy. I do have concerns for example when an employee gets in at 7.00am when he/she knows no clients will be contactable until 8.30 and the employee has no reason to be undertaking 'work' but simply wants to shoot thru' at 3.00pm (and then miss the traditional clients who work until 5.00 - thereby effectively missing 3.5 hours of client contact).

    Commenter
    just get it done
    Date and time
    September 03, 2010, 9:51AM

  • "They want to be constantly connected, available and multi-tasking and don't remember a time without the constant connectivity to the world via sophisticated handheld devices."

    Being constantly connected and contactable isn't something that comes just from gen Y, but employers of gen X and baby boomers as well who now take advantage of said communication technology and require their staff to answer and deal with work no matter what the hour, even if its after or before business hours - this hinders work life balance, and while we may always have a smartphone somewhere on our body at all times, it's mainly for social avenues

    Commenter
    gen y member
    Location
    sydney
    Date and time
    September 02, 2010, 9:32PM

  • 'As a baby boomer and having managed across the generational spectrum, I don't give a rat's where they do the work as long as it gets done and the clients are happy. I do have concerns for example when an employee gets in at 7.00am when he/she knows no clients will be contactable until 8.30 and the employee has no reason to be undertaking 'work' but simply wants to shoot thru' at 3.00pm (and then miss the traditional clients who work until 5.00 - thereby effectively missing 3.5 hours of client contact).'

    granted, totally agree with your points.

    In this case they should make sure that they are indeed contactable via phone even when at football, else there is really no excuse to leave early in a customer service role. You sign a contract for a job, if you cant meet the criteria anymore post kids, quite and let somebody take the job who bloody well can!

    I have been burdened as a manager by people who think having kids is a 'get out of work obligations free' card. This mentality has to change. Having kids is a privilege, and a parent having to look after a child isn't the firms problem. Sorry to have to break it to the people who think child bearing is in the interest of the survival of humanity....

    Commenter
    Dave D7b
    Location
    Maroubra
    Date and time
    September 03, 2010, 11:28AM

  • sounds like the IT bubble all over again when top grads were being plucked out and placed in high paying jobs with guaranteed pay increases. No uniforms, come and go as you please basically. Its human nature to slack off and everyone did. Its not a gen y thing its a 20 and 30 something thing. As you know it didnt go well. The company I was with went from 200,000 world wide to about 18,000 in 2 years. They may be be able to work from anywhere but do they work? Reading the paper on line for example. Facebook and twitter. theres 2 hours gone.

    Commenter
    smilingjack
    Date and time
    September 03, 2010, 3:02PM

  • I work for a Melbourne based global company out of their Swedish office. Next week I will work overnight with our New Zealand office on Monday. I will train someone on the US East coast Tuesday night, then I will attend a conference call with Melbourne staff Wednesday morning. I'm not a senior manager. Being present in an office can be useful, but my reality is that whether I am in my office or not, to the people I work with, there is no difference.
    Having said that, it is naive to presume that the allowances for flexibility will still result in the same productivity. Managing staff performance remotely is difficult. I know, I've done it. And technology does not replace face to face discussions. A mediocre manager can do a reasonable job face to face, they will surely struggle with remote staff. The same applies for staff. Self motivated staff will perform well anywhere. Less motivated or capable staff, will struggle far more when working remotely.

    Commenter
    KF
    Location
    Sweden
    Date and time
    September 03, 2010, 9:14PM

  • what a completely pointless article

    higher ups have always used the privilege of their position for "me" time, while lower-downs have been expected to act in a subservient fashion even if doing so does not benefit the organisation in the slightest. It is not a "generational" difference in perspective, most people try to achieve the most career success with the least amount of work or time spent in the office.

    The only reason these incompetent baby boomers have any younger staff to preside over is that they hold the purse strings.

    Commenter
    engaging perspective
    Location
    Sydney
    Date and time
    September 06, 2010, 2:18PM
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